Red Velvet Rose Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Gluten & cow's Milk Free

I saw this cake on Pinterest and absolutely fell in love with it.  I thought, although it looks so complicated, it really should be quite easy to do, as each of the roses are just like I usually frost my cupcakes - so I decided to try it.  The cake and decorating idea come from Casey Cooks blog.  She also has a very nice little tutorial video on how to do the roses if you do not know how.  I have simplified the instructions a bit below - please visit her site for full instructions.  Before I made the cake, I did a test batch as cupcakes (as they bake more evenly in my little oven that doesn't always work). and then made the cake. 

The alterations I made.    

First, before starting, I of course converted most things to weight measurements.  I also reduced the amount of oil used.  I used goat's products instead of cow's.  I also used Muscovado Sugar in my test recipe.  In the cake recipe I used castor sugar.  I found with the GF flours, that the Muscovado worked loads better. I tried 2 different coloring techniques.  For the test batch, I used Wilton no-taste red.  For the cake, I  used liquid generic brand red.  They gave a diff color - both were nice.  And of course, used GF flours ;-)  In this post, you will find the altered recipe for the cupcakes.  

And a pic of the inside

Red Velvet Rose Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Gluten & cow's Milk Free

Makes 2 rounds to form 1 double round.
adapted from http://www.caseycooks.com/2011/04/red-velvet-rose-cake-cake-decorating.html

Cake
2 eggs
300 grams Canola Oil
1 cup Buttermilk
3 teaspoons Vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
1 teaspoon GF Pure Vanilla Extract
Red Food Colouring (I used Wilton no-taste red and mixed it with 1 Tabelspoon water until it was a deep dark red)
140 grams Millet or Sorghum Flour
100 grams Amaranth Flour
50 grams Tapioca Flour
50 grams White Rice Flour
40 grams Quinoa Flour
20 grams Corn Starch
350 grams Fine White Sugar
10 grams Unsweetened Dutch Cocoa
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt

Frosting
200 grams Goat’s Cream Cheese, softened
220 grams Crisco (white, not butter flavoured)
2 teaspoon vanilla
600 grams Powdered Sugar, sifted

Equipment
Large pastry bag and large couplet
1M tip

Preheat oven to 180°C.  Spray two 8-inch cake pans and line bottom with baking paper.

In a stand mixer bowl, slightly mix egg using the whisk attachment. Add remaining liquid ingredients and mix on low continuing to use the whisk attachment until blended.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and mix until combined. Add to the wet ingredients and mix on medium-high until completely combined, about one minute.

Divide batter equally among the two cake pans. Drop pans onto the counter from about 3-inches up to release any air bubbles. Repeat twice.

Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Allow cakes to cool completely on wire racks. While you are waiting, make the frosting. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and mix. Gradually mix in the confectioner's sugar. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes prior to using. Keep any frosting you are not using covered in the fridge. 

Place one of the cakes on the plate or platter you intend to use a (I always put the bottom layer top side down, so that your new top is flat (ie, the bottom). Apply a layer of icing to the top of the first cake. This will be the icing between your two layers, so with that in mind apply more or less icing depending on how much frosting you like.

Place the second cake on top of the first, making sure the two are properly aligned. Then, apply the crumb layer. A crumb layer is a thin layer of frosting you apply to a cake to hold in the crumbs, so that the final product is beautiful and crumb-free. Wait for the crumb layer to dry before applying the icing roses.

Hydrangea Cupcakes - Take 2 Gluten & Cow's Milk Free

I needed to do a test batch for the Red Velvet Cake, plus I had promised my friend Karen I would give her a hydrangea cupcakes that I made the last time but there were none left, so perfect reason to make them.  The cupcake recipe is adapted from Casey Cooks Blog.   

More detail in the above blog about the cake.  This recipe is halved from the other. The decorating technique again was adapted from Glorious Treats' blog

Wet Ingredients
1 egg
150 grams Canola Oil
1/2 cup Buttermilk
1 ½ teaspoons Vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon GF Pure Vanilla Extract
Red Food Colouring (I used Wilton no-taste red and mixed it with 1/2 Tablespoon water until it was a deep dark red)

Dry Ingredients
50 grams Amaranth Flour
70 grams Millet or Sorghum Flour
25 grams Tapioca Flour
25 grams White Rice Flour
20 grams Quinoa Flour
10 grams Corn Starch
130 grams Muscovado Sugar
5 grams Unsweetened Dutch Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Preheat oven to 180°C.

In a stand mixer bowl, slightly mix egg using the whisk attachment. Add remaining liquid ingredients and mix on low continuing to use the whisk attachment until blended.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and mix until combined. Add to the wet ingredients and mix on medium-high until completely combined, about one minute.

Pour into your prepared cupcake pans and bake for 18-20 min or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Gluten Free Caramel/Peanut Butter Chocoate Bars with Almond Base

So, I had a few "bad" things that needed used up so that they were gone :)  I had a can of condensed milk, well, closest thing you can get in Germany. It was a generic can that I got at a local Asian shop.  You can not really buy the Carnation stuff here.  I kept reading about how you can cook the can for a few hours and make caramel out of it, so I tried it.  I cooked the can in boiling water for 4 hours,  The result (I wish I had taken a pic, but I did not) was a wonderful thick caramel that had the color/flavor as it should.  Now, I knew I had to make something with this or I would eat the whole can.  I also knew this was a double no no as it is pure milk and I am not suppose to eat milk :(   I have been wanting to make some shortbread caramel bars for a while so thought I would try that.  I decided to just go with what I had and not follow any recipe.  I did not write down amounts of what I did but I followed the basics of most recipes as a base.

For the base - I mixed in a food processor Almond Meal, mascoavo sugar and margarine- pressed it into a baking dish and baked for 15 min.

For the filling - I  mixed the can of now caramel sauce with some margarine, vanilla and the rest of a jar of peanut butter that I had (I figured why not :)

For the chocolate - I  melted some baking chocolate I had left with some ghee and sea salt.

I simply layered them and put it in the fridge for a few hours.

They turned out quite nice, but I do need to try to freeze some so that we don't eat them all :-D

Happy Mother's Day - Gluten Free Chocolate Hydrangea Cupcakes

 

Happy Mother's Day!

So, I saw these early last week when I was browsing Pinterest and fell in love with them as Hydrangea are one of my favorite flowers (Fuchsia being the other).  I had wanted to actually make some cupcakes and send to my mom back in the states.  However, this would mean sending them express and I was shocked at the price - so, I  made them anyway (will take them to friends tomorrow on a day trip) but they are still meant to be cupcakes for my mom :)

I used my standard chocolate cupcake recipe, but did not have any goat's milk or any kind for that matter, so I just used water - and they turned out the same :)

My frosting was a bit too stiff, but I had already bagged it and decided to just go with it, rather than thinning it out a bit.

Here is the original link on Glorious Treats Blog.  And unfortunately, I don't have any actual Hydrangea plants to set them by for a picture like she did on her blog- so a boring pic from the kitchen counter will have to do.

I will definitely make these again!

Gluten and Milk Free Heart Shaped Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients
½ cube fresh Yeast (ca 20g of fresh or ½ package of dried yeast)
1/2 cup warm Milk (I used goat’s)
50 grams Muscovado Sugar
50 grams Margarine
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 egg
50 grams Millet Flour
50 grams Amaranth Flour
50 grams Rice Flour
50 grams Tapioca Flour
50 grams Quinoa Flour
1 teaspoon Xanthan Gum

Filling
50 grams Muscovado Sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Cinnamon
40 grams Margarine, softened

Icing
50 grams Powdered Sugar
50 grams Cream Cheese (I used goat’s)
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla

Directions:
In your stand mixer bowl fitted with the mixing paddle, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk with a pinch of the sugar.

Add sugar, margarine salt and egg and mix well.

Switch to your dough hook.

Combine your flours in a separate bowl and then add to the above mixture and mix on low speed until combined.

Knead the dough in your stand mixer until it forms a soft pliable ball.  Cover the bowl and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Roll the dough out on a lightly (gluten free) floured surface, until it is approx 45 cm long by 30 cm wide.

 It should be approx 5-6 mm thick.

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

Spread the softened margarine over the surface of the dough, then sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon mix evenly over the surface.

Working carefully from the wide edge, roll the dough towards the other side, stopping when just shy of the center.  Now roll from the other wide edge – towards the center again, until you are just shy of the center.  You should now have 2 rolls facing each  other with a tiny bit of space between them.

Cut the dough into 4-5 cm slices and place into a baking dish that is either lined with baking paper or greased.

Bake for 15 minutes or until light golden brown.

While the rolls are baking combine the icing ingredients.

Beat well in your stand mixer with the paddle until fluffy.

When the rolls are done, spread generously with icing

Serving Size: 1 (135 g)   Calories 418    Total Fat 17 g   Total Carbohydrate 65 g   Dietary Fiber 4 g   Protein 6 g

Gluten and Milk Free Baked Chicken with Pesto, Asparagus & Potatoes

 

This is one of the BEST meals we have EVER eaten!!!  I can not believe the flavor that the pesto/asparagus combo brought out. And the potatoes - I could have eaten 10 servings!!!

I found some nice looking green asparagus at the local supermarket yesterday and I had some chicken in the fridge and so searched to find a recipe that looked nice and was not pasta.  I found the perfect one using google.  I also found these really cool baked potatoes recipe on Pintrest (my favorite new site).  The result was absolutely delicious!!!

The recipe for the chicken/asparagus/pesto is found on Start to Simmer's blog.  The only alteration is that I used only pecorino cheese (as have intolerance to cow's milk).

I made my own pesto using standard recipe from Food network, only using only 1/2 cup oil in total.

The potatoes came from Fish Food's blog.

And as you can see in the pic above, the result was absolutely delicious!  I do not think I have enjoyed a meal so much in a very very long time!

Here is a closer look at the pesto

Gluten and Milk Free Meatloaf - Jamie Oliver Style!!!

As I posted last week, I love this new Jamie Oliver cookbook I bought.  This weekend we made the meatloaf.  What drew me to this instantly, was the "sauce" that went along with it.  It was a mix of spices, chick peas and tomatoes and the meatloaf itself had great spices and bacon as well.


I will not retype the recipe, as it is here on this link.  The only alterations that I made were to use a gluten free panier mix (basically dried gluten free bread crumbs) and left out the Worcestershire sauce.

One of the best things about this meal was cooking it together.  We were very pleased with the outcome of this.  It had a lovely mix of flavors and was more than enough on it's own for dinner, well, with a nice glass of red wine of course :)

Most fun I have had baking cupcakes. With one of my good friend's daughter.

As you know, I LOVE baking cupcakes and what is more fun than baking with kids :)   A good friend of mine had an appointment near my house and asked if I could watch her oldest daughter (just turned 3) for an hour or so while she was there.  I took this opportunity to have loads of fun with Lottie and doing some cupcake baking :)  

I let her choose what we would do. She wanted vanilla with pink frosting.  I made a few large cupcakes ahead of time (I put bright pink food coloring in them, so they were VERY pink.  When she got here, we made another small batch of vanilla, but put blue coloring in them this time.  We then made mini cupcakes with this batch.  While they were baking, Lottie decorated the pink cupcakes herself.  I did help with some of the piping (she couldn't quite hold and squeeze the bag with her little hands).  

I got a few fun things for kids. Some animal sugar toppings, some princess sprinkles, gummy bears, mini smarties etc...  She had so much fun and I let her do what ever she wanted to them.

She then took nearly all of them home with her for her Nan and Pop (aka grandma and grandpa) who had arrived that day from the UK to visit them.  She was very proud of herself and her cupcakes, as was I.